Lessons from Roy
Illustrating and designing a book about a UNC basketball legend.
Project overview
I worked with a children’s book author author wanting to create a book about famous North Carolina sports figures. After UNC Basketball’s national championship win, the author decided to move forward with a book about UNC basketball coach, Roy Williams.
I worked with a small team to take the book from copy to storyboards, final illustration, layout design, and prepping for print.
July 2017 - August 2017
Role
Illustration
Graphic Design
Tools
Photoshop
Illustrator
InDesign
Style tests
My first step of the process was to work with the author to identify the illustrative style they’d like for this book. I did a few tests for them to review and have a sense of how I’d approach the final illustrations.
Creating an author
The author of this book wanted to use a pseudonym for the book and flesh out a character to take on that identity. This character would have a bio in the back of the book describing her history as a UNC fan and she and her pets would appear in the backgrounds throughout the story.
They provided some visuals for inspiration on the character’s design which I took and developed several sketches from. The author chose from the lineup which I then developed into a final design.
Storyboarding and laying out the pages
The author provided me with a script of the book which I then sectioned off into the amount of pages desired for the final product. After determining what text would appear on each page, I then storyboarded each page, creating rough sketches of the illustrations and how they would interact with the text on the page. While storyboarding, I also dedicated time to researching Roy William’s history to ensure I could depict the final illustrations with a high level of authenticity.
I presented these to the author and our team, made any requested edits, and finalized the sketches for production.
Final Illustrations
Once the storyboards were approved, I began the process of creating the final illustrations.
Designing the book layout
The printer provided me with a template of the book size requested by the author. Taking this, I created a InDesign file with the appropriate measurements for the printing process.
After this I was able to add in the story copy, illustrations, page numbers, ISBN number and barcode, library of congress number, dust jacket content, and the glossary copy.
Prepping for print
With the book put together in InDesign I sent the needed files to the printer who then sent us a test copy to review. Once reviewed, the book was off to production!
Additional materials
For marketing and ordering purposes I created a flyer and order form for the author to hand out to bookstores and others interested in purchase.
The final product
During its first print, Lessons from Roy was available for purchase in several bookstores across North Carolina including:
- NC Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill Sportswear, The Shrunken Head Boutique, Flyleaf Books, Merritt’s Grill, Purple Puddle, Southern Season, Sutton’s Drug Store, and Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill, NC
- Hallmark Shop’s in Chapel Hill, Durham and Cary
- Balloons N Toons in Carrboro, NC
- Hometown Hardware in Canton, NC
- Just Be in Burlington, NC
- Scuppernog Books in Greensboro, NC
- Amy’s Hallmark
- Shop and Park Road Books in Charlotte, NC
- the Village Store in Davidson, NC
- Stuf and Such in Raleigh, NC
- A Little Something in Hillsborough, NC
